On December 10–11, more than 130 researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from government agencies, universities and adult education programs, foundations, policy shops and think tanks participated in the 2nd PIAAC Research-to-Action Conference titled “What We Need Skills for.” The conference provided an opportunity for participants to discuss the relationships between the skills assessed in PIAAC and the social and economic outcomes as well as the implications of the findings for policy and practice. The conference, made possible by funding from AIR, began with introductory talks by David Myers, President and CEO of American Institutes for Research, and Peggy Carr, Acting Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). These were followed by presentations of research papers organized around critical policy themes related to workforce, education, skills acquisition and decline, immigration, health, and STEM. Most of the papers were commissioned by AIR through funding provided by the NCES of the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to the commissioned research papers, there were presentations by ETS researchers on the PIAAC reading components and the results of an investigation of the problem solving in technology-rich environments log files. The conference also included a keynote address by Johan Uvin, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE). Materials from this dynamic and intellectually stimulating event are posted below.

Session 1: Work, Education, and Skills: PIAAC-Based Research from the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Pennsylvania State University View video › Moderator - Amanda Ahlstrand, Administrator, Office of Workforce Investment, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor

“Examining Gender Differences in the Mathematical Literacy of 15-Year-Olds and the Numeracy Skills of the Age Cohorts as Adults” byAlka Arora, Senior Researcher, American Institutes for Research, and Emily Pawlowski, Research Associate, American Institutes for Research View summary › View powerpoint › View full research paper ›

Reflections on Day 1 by Laura Salganik, Consultant and former Director of Quality, American Institutes for Research and Mary Alice McCarthy, Senior Policy Analyst, Education Policy Program, New America. View video ›

Participant Feedback

Thanks for the small group session. Mix of researchers, practitioners and policy folks very fruitful. Excellent opportunity to learn, think and project next steps.

It has encouraged me to think about research on the ways we are addressing the problem in our program.

Excellent presentations of value to the field. Well done!

Having discussants was the best part! Discussants made the conference more practical and informative.

The conference was informative, engaging and thought-provoking.

It was a well-organized and very relevant conference.

I would love to have another US PIAAC conference next year, Thanks you for this great conference and chance to meet other US PIAAC researchers and practitioners. I especially liked the group/task discussions on day 1.

This conference was a great experience learning about what PIAAC data can do and cannot do and networking with practitioners and policy makers. I hope to attend it again.